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Monthly Meetings

  • About the meeting
    The Society meets on the third Tuesday of each month in the Village Day Club room on the RAAFA Memorial Estate, Bull Creek Drive, Bull Creek.

    Please note that the location of the monthly meeting has changed.  Click here for directions to the Village Day Club room.

    Meetings commence at 7.30 pm, and all are welcome and attendance is free.  Following is a list of speakers scheduled to present with a summary of their topic.

  • March 2023

     Date – Tuesday March 21

    Guest Speaker – Mykola Mowczan, President of the Ukrainian Association of WA

    Topic – A brief history of Ukraine

    Ukraine’s early attempts at independence, the bid for independence after 1989, the development of a fledgling and later successful democracy in spite of an interfering Russia, the annexing of Crimea, the Russian invasion, how the war has developed and Mykola’s prognosis for the future.

  • April 2023

     Date – Tuesday April 18

    Guest Speaker – Vincent Shaw assisted by Peter Illidge

    Topic – The War of 1812 from a naval perspective

    America successfully fought several important battles on the high seas and the Great lakes against a superior naval power.  This aspect of that war warrants a separate presentation.

  • May 2023

     Date – Tuesday May 16

    Guest Speaker – Tony Atkinson

    Topic – The Odyssey of Second-Lieutenant Raymond Makowiak

    Captured at the fall of the entrenched camp of Điện Biên Phủ, Second-Lieutenant Raymond Makowiak escaped his captors on the first night of a hellish ordeal that befell 11,000 French Union troops, including the able-bodied and injured, who were forced to march hundreds of kilometres to POW camps in northern Vietnam. Fewer than 4,000 men were eventually returned to French hands. Through a combination of his bush craft, luck, and knowledge of the local language, Makowiak made it to safety in Laos in an odyssey that spanned three weeks and 200 kilometres through almost-impenetrable jungle and over steep mountains, all the while evading Viet Minh forces operating in the area. This is the story of his remarkable journey.
  • June 2023

     Date – Tuesday June 20

    Guest Speaker – Vincent Shaw

    Topic – The  first US bombing raids over Berlin

    Initially unsuccessful this offensive in conjunction with Bomber Command eventually crippled the German economy.

  • July 2023

     Date – Tuesday July 18

    Guest Speaker – Peter Illidge

    Topic – Could better general-ship have saved Singapore

    The controversy still rages this way and that amongst historians. Peter will try for something more conclusive.

  • August 2023

     Date – Tuesday August 15

    Guest Speaker – John Tick and Trevor Carboon

    Topic – Battlefield radio communications during the Vietnam conflict.

  • September 2023

     Date – Tuesday September 19

    Guest Speaker – John Adeney

    Topic – The battle of Westralia Hill

    John has given a previous talk on Westralia Hill which is a Boer War site of an action involving Australian Soldiers. This talk will take the form of a discussion  with small display of original Boer War uniforms and equipment.

  • October2023

     Date – Tuesday October 17

    Guest Speaker – Nigel Earnshaw

    Topic – To be advised

  • November 2023

     Date – Tuesday November 21

    Guest Speaker – To be advised

    Topic –